Did You Know?

. . . The amount of recyclable waste that airlines throw away each year is staggering. They annually landfill 9000 tons of plastic and 4000 tons of aluminum — enough aluminum to build 58 Boeing 747 jets. Newspapers and magazines collected in-flight could fill a football stadium with a newspaper pile over 230 feet tall.

. . . If you throw your sneakers in the trash, it will take somewhere around 1000 years to biodegrade. If you recycle your footwear, they may end up as a sports surface like basketball courts, tennis courts, running tracks or as a base in your local playground. Sneakers still in pretty usable condition? Find the organization near you that collect and distribute them to adults and kids who will be more than grateful to finish wearing them out. Or contact www.oneworldrunning.com, who will send still wearable shoes to athletes in Africa, Latin America and Haiti.

. . . There are 1.4 billion people worldwide who lack access to clean drinking water, and 2.6 billion lack access to sanitation.

. . . Renewable energy is almost tied with nuclear power in terms of US Energy production. The latest figures from the US Energy Information Administration shows that renewable energy sources (biofuels, bio mass, hydroelectric, wind, solar, and geothermal) provided 11.4% of domestic US energy production during the first six months of 2010. Nuclear power provided 11.19%.